Kept
by AuraPen
Summary: Detective Gumshoe wonders why he's being kept around.


He just couldn't help himself.

For everything that he did, he received mostly trouble in return. This wasn't the career he thought he would be having, all those years ago. He thought being a detective was, yes paperwork, but having a respectable position in the police force. He had such enthusiasm when investigating cases, and catching the real culprit. He had amazing superiors, and subordinates he could easily get along with. He was a friend to everybody in his precinct.

But this wasn't fully the life he imagined. He had been dubbed "Scruffy", it seemed for all eternity, and he had long since lost track of the number of lashes he received per day. They were just a part of his life now. He was verbally abused, and mocked, and made to fall over and make even more of a mess of himself. He was sent to go grab cups of coffee, make pots of tea...

And by someone much younger than him, too.

But he mostly forgot about the age difference. He almost felt it was the opposite. He felt like he was the incompetent younger one, especially due to what seemed to be their mental gap in intelligence.

Sometimes though, he wondered why he was being kept around.

Gumshoe didn't have to be Franziska von Karma's subordinate. She could have picked some other more competent detective to assist her. Why him specifically?

Over a cup of instant noodles, he pondered that perhaps it was because she could get away with this punishment with the detective. Other workers would have cowed away, hidden from the mad lady with the whip. It would be troublesome to have to keep replacing that spot if they all kept running away. There were times where reporting her had crossed his mind, but, he has slumped his shoulders when he realised she had too much influence for it to make a difference. And Mr Edgeworth urged him to work with her without complaint.

But Gumshoe secretly, secretly hoped that he was being kept around for another reason. He knew it couldn't be possible. He knew it was a "foolish" thing to think.

Could she be somewhat _fond_ of him?

He craved her very limited compliments, if they could even be called that. Perhaps "backhanded compliments" was the better term. They came so rarely, and typically when she took him for granted and he had performed his job well enough. "At least you're not completely useless," she'd say when she received some files once. "You've improved somewhat," she remarked over a pot of coffee he was proud of at the time. "Decent work, Scuffy. I won't have to dock your pay too harshly next salary review," she had said when he finished his investigation with little errors made. Things like that. He also enjoyed it when she didn't say anything at all. Silently taking and sipping the tea when he had brought it to her. The quiet acknowledgement when he was right there for her, holding an umbrella for when it rained and her whip when she needed to do something small.

It were these moments that confused him before, when he questioned to himself if Miss von Karma hated his guts. She hurled abuse at him the moment she saw him, always spoke of decreasing his pay, complained he wasn't fast enough, doing enough, being enough. Those were all the things that first came to mind when the prosecutor was mentioned.

And Gumshoe couldn't help but herald some sort of… _crush?_

He was committed to Maggey, he reminded himself. She was the one who was nothing but kind to him. She worked diligently under his command and made him feel wanted, and important. But that changed, and she was working elsewhere. They caught up for coffee when Gumshoe could afford to get away from his work.

But there was something about the prosecutor that made him yearn for her attention, her praise, even if it was backhanded. Gumshoe strived to do his best everywhere, but even more for Miss von Karma. He had assumed it was because she had saved him with Mr. Edgeworth all those years ago, but it couldn't have been the only reason why, when he started to get nervous around her. Nervous like around Maggey. He seemed aware of everything she did. Down to the pose. He knew right away when she wasn't her normal, confident self. When she was shaken by a loss, or uncertain of what move next to take. When she quietly walked away from a crime scene, he was there right behind her. There was nothing he just wouldn't do. He just felt like he had to.

So he would keep on trying. For a lot of sakes. For Mr Edgeworth's sake, for the sake of doing a good job… and for his own sake.


End file.
